Thursday, March 8, 2018

Pilot ladder cabinet 1, considerations and finding some stock.

As you might have guessed, I am back at work and ironically able to find the time to blog.
Our last ship was temporarily lend out to the Canadian branch of the mother company, so we have all been transferred to a "new" ship.
This ship has been mothballed for the last two years, but has just been through dry dock, so apart from a bit of dirt here and there, she is ready to go to work.

This ship was built in India, so instead of the normal pine timber on the deck, we have 1000 square meters of exotic decking. All made up from 2 x 4" planks. It is rather impressive!

I am not sure what species it is. The chief officer who was present during the building of the ship thinks it is teak, but I am not so sure about that.

My reasons for the doubt is that I had spotted a few extra pieces on my tour around the ship to locate different stuff.
I have tried to saw a bit in one of those pieces and it doesn't smell like teak, It is a bit open pored, but still heavy. Anyway, it is nice looking wood.

I have made up my mind that I should get back to making some real stuff out here, no more playing around making planes and other tools that I will never use. It is much better to make some furniture (that I will never use either).

Looking back on my blog it seems to be a long time since I have built a cabinet. You could argue that a cabinet is nothing more than a box flipped on an end. But my intentions are to make a small drawer under the door as well.

As you might have guessed, my initial idea was to use the spare 2x4"'s as material. But they are parked well underneath a bunch of other wood, so I was unable to pull out any of them.

Instead I found an old pilot ladder that was going to be thrown away.
I think the reason is that it is more than 5 years old, and therefore not necessarily safe to use anymore. The wood is also some sort of exotic looking stuff of unknown sort.
But contrary to the deck planks - it is easily accessible.

So my plan is to make a small cabinet with a drawer from the steps of the old pilot ladder.
There are some large holes from the ropes that will give a natural limit as to the possible usable lengths of stock. But it could be fun to see how I can work around that. I might leave the old metal certification plates on part of the stock, as a gimmick to show where the wood came from.

Always enjoy your on-ship woodworking. Did a little reading (very little) about pilot ladders. Sounds like they use nice wood, knot-free. But no one named a species. One place says they heat treat it. Might be a lot of sharpening required. Also learned about the longer pieces -- "spreaders", right? I guess you don't want your ladder spinning and flopping around when you're using it, huh? (that reminds of my early sawing form, which still recurs from time to time).Jeff

Hi Jeff.Thanks for the nice comment. I am impressed that you read up on the subject of pilot ladders!A funny thing about them is that the rope type is required to be Manila rope. You can't use a synthetic rope because it could potentially be slippery when the pilot has to grab it. I think that is the reason why they are renewed every so often. The wood will outlast the rope, and nowadays it is cheaper to buy a new pilot ladder instead of replacing the ropes on the original one. Kind of neat from a woodworking perspective..I am sure your sawing is a lot more stable than one of those ladders in bad weather :-)BrgdsJonas

Hi Bob.Thanks for the nice comment.It seems as there is a majority in favour of using the metal plate :-).I just have to find out where to put it, but that will most likely be determined in the end of the build.BrgdsJonas